From ESPN article also in NY times.
While he’s retiring, Armstrong said he might occasionally take part in cyclo-cross, mountain bike and triathlons race to satisfy his competitive streak.
“It’s not as if I’m going to sit around and be a fat slob,” he said.
What distance do you think he would thrive at? He has such an awesome LT that I would think he would be great an Olympic distances, but then again Ironman/Halfs have a greater percentage of biking.
he occasionally does the dirty DU in austin, plus he owns the record for the course if I remember right…
Here’s a quote from an article I read. . .
"This job is stressful, and this race is stressful so hopefully the next week will be a preview of what my life will be like for the next 50 years, although I can’t promise I won’t show up at a few cyclo-cross events or mountain bike or triathlon races.
“I’m an athlete. I’ve been competing in swimming and running events since I was 12 years old.”
From Velonews (http://www.velonews.com/tour2005/news/articles/8598.0.html):
At his final press conference here at the end of his final Tour de France, Lance Armstrong cracked a couple jokes. At one point he lightly poked fun at a German reporter for a predictable Jan Ullrich question. At another moment he speculated about how much more manageable his media commitments would be if he were a ping-pong champion.
The most applause came when Armstrong answered a question about how he would spend his energy following his retirement. “I can’t promise that I won’t show up at a few cyclo-cross races and a few mountain bike races and a few triathlons and a few 10K runs,” said Armstrong. “It’s not as if I can sit around and be a fat slob. I have to do something.”
Then Armstrong talked about how setting goals enhances the satisfaction of exercise.
“Why couldn’t I take a couple years and then say, ‘Okay, let’s do a marathon? Let’s just see how fast you can run a marathon.'”
Not because he wanted to win, Armstrong added quickly.
“But say you wanted to run 2:30.”
Armstrong paused, microphone in hand.
“Or three hours, I don’t know.”
Journalists laughed.
“Okay, 2:15.”
Also
I’m a competitive person, but I don’t need to do it in a big-time sport, I don’t need to come back and do the Ironman in two years — although I’ve thought about it….
It’s nice to see that Lance seems to imply that Ironman is a “big-time sport.” Epic, yes; big-time in the real world, no.
In two years he’ll only be 35. It will be interesting to see what athletic challenges he sets for himself, but although I count myself as a Lance fan I look forward to his retirement and the breathing room it will give the sport of cycling. Of course, the US-dominated media will turn around and ignore cycling, but we still have our trade rags and Web sites.
Yes - OLN next July: more bass fishing than you can shake a stick at…
so now that he is on the edge of retirement, how long are we going to have to deal with the ‘when is lance racing an IM’ stuff?
Until it becomes obvious he is not going to I guess. Before that, we will continue to listen to comments like “how many yards would Lance rush for if he played for the Detroit Lions, will Lance run for President, can Lance ride his bike to the moon and find it out it is really made of cheese”.
Chris Carmichael was saying on OLN “the hour record is the ONLY thing that will bring Lance out of retirement, and he and i have been working on his power output over an hour, positioning etc etc etc”. I think CC is realizing his five minutes of fame are almost up.
Lance would be CRUSHED in an IM distance event by any of our sport’s top OD athletes. In fact I bet you could give Lance 3 yrs to train and Dave Scott could still beat him.
First off…Lance still puts his pants on one leg at a time like most of us. There’s a lil bit of Lance in everybody. Reach your potential. (Sorry for being sappy…)
I’d like to see him do the CX series.
As for IM, I doubt he’ll ever try. But, he would not be crushed I can assure you.
Why?
#1 - He wouldn’t enter it unless he intended on training for it.
#2 - I forget the article…but it broke down his time based upon past performance. It would basically be a sprint finish to b/c Lance would have 20ish minutes off the bike. I believe is was a 1 hour swim, 4:15-20 bike, 3:00-05 marathon.
"how long are we going to have to deal with the ‘when is lance racing an IM’ stuff? "
Until he is dead.